The Sea-Cure — Regina O'Melveny

The Sea-Cure, a novel of journeys in the seventeenth century will transport you, dear reader, far beyond the first passage from Holland to Tenerife, aboard a merchant ship that also carries misfits and the mad sent away from their towns as outcasts. The ship sails between known and unknown islands, where the voyageurs traverse human and animal realms, beauty and beastliness, servitude and freedom, isolation and love. You'll discover what brings together Hans, a handsome but poor Dutchman who tends the mad aboard ship, and Toñina, a fascinating Spanish lady of Tenerife whose bewildering appearance, an oddity inherited from her father, challenges all who meet her with both aversion and wonder. Shipwrecked on an unknown island, they will encounter and create the strange new geography of their lives.